


The Reality Is...

by hazeltea (madlovescience)



Category: Red Dwarf
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-20
Updated: 2010-03-20
Packaged: 2017-10-08 04:01:47
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,156
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/72487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madlovescience/pseuds/hazeltea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Pairings: Lister/Lister, Rimmer/Lister (imp)<br/>Disclaimer: Of course I have no legal stake in this, I just do it for fun.</p><p>For kavhi, who likes this sort of thing ;)</p>
    </blockquote>





	The Reality Is...

**Author's Note:**

> Pairings: Lister/Lister, Rimmer/Lister (imp)  
> Disclaimer: Of course I have no legal stake in this, I just do it for fun.
> 
> For kavhi, who likes this sort of thing ;)

Plugging in to the AR unit, Lister hastily typed in his password. The screen blinked, and brought up a blank field. Mildly annoyed, Lister tried again, and achieved the same results, before realizing that the user name listed was not his. He frowned in confusion. No one else used this particular game, an adaptation of a virtual brothel that he had found on a derelict, likely a copy of a pirated copy, the disc labeled with a messy scrawl of permanent marker. Despite a few scratches, it still worked. Lister had been in a wonderful mood for weeks, to the surprise of the rest of the crew, who knew nothing about this disc that he kept hidden in the sleeve of Virtual Pilates.

Which was why he felt suddenly betrayed. Someone else on board had found out how pathetic he was, using a game that he couldn't even pretend had another purpose. Someone that used the handle 'Alexander'. Smirking, Lister plugged in the password, the same one that he used to open Rimmer's electronic diary, the same one that gave him access to override the vending units- 1581769. So predictable , the thought with a grin, as the interim screen appeared, notifying him that his profile was loading.

A moment of doubt settled over him as the progress bar reached 43%. What sort of sick fantasy would he find in here? Did he really want to know? His own profile was filled with both the stock women and ones he had customized – Kochanski, Marilyn Monroe, the girl on the cover of Wot Bike Bikini Special. He'd have had more if he had a larger collection of appealing photographs to upload. What would he find in Rimmer's? A small, uncomfortable stab of jealously pierced his stomach as he realized that Rimmer might have pictures of Kochanski, too. More likely, he'd have McGrueder, though. She was pretty, if memory served him right, with bright blue eyes and a strong, lithe body. If Rimmer was thinking about Kochanski, he'd just have it off with McGrueder, that would make things square and would drive Rimmer insane for years. He chuckled as he imagined the amount of blackmail this excursion might amount in.

Lister felt himself drawn upwards, away from his body and into the virtual world. The room he was in was dark and pleasantly warm. There was a bed there, nothing elaborate or fancy. No dungeon with homemade torture devices. Lister sat on the edge of the bed, and wondered if he had read Rimmer wrong all this time.

"Back for more, tiger?" a soft voice purred. A male voice. Lister froze in place, as fingers gently traced the outline of his jaw, and a tender kiss was placed on his shoulder. Lister spun around, and cried out as he faced a carbon copy of himself. It was the same face he saw in the mirror, only animated with lust. He scooted back against the headboard as his doppelganger took the opportunity to straddle him.

"What the smeg is this?" he cried, pushing back against the other. The skin felt familiar, too familiar. Even without the assistance of the dim light, he knew his hand had touched where his shoulder joined to his collarbone. He knew his own body, and observing it from the outside was unnerving in general, to say nothing of in intimate positions.

"I've been waiting for you." The simulated Lister purred. He brushed his fingers over Lister's nipples and grinned. "It's lonely waiting, you know. All I can think about is you." He felt his own hands trail down his sides, gripping him.

Lister was frozen in place as his body began to betray him, reacting to the teasing, soft caresses. Rimmer, he thought. This is Rimmer's. Rimmer is thinking of me. Oh, smeg. Rimmer.

The other slid up against him, grinding his erection into his thigh. "Don't be shy. It's just a game." Lister swallowed hard as he considered this. It was just a game. It was just a sprite. The sprite couldn't tell the difference between him and Rimmer. He just knew that someone had come to play with him. He wasn't really a him, either, just a collection of information made up according to the player's whims and fantasies, a generic prostitute with his skin and locks laid over it.

He began to pull away, and the sprite pulled back. "Don't go. I love you, you know… I'd never leave you." Lister looked at the sprite and felt both horror and pity, even as his mind struggled to process the sappy canned responses Rimmer had requested the sprite to speak in a soft, lilting tone. Why him? Why this? Why?

"I can't stand waiting anymore, Duke. I need it, I need to taste it now." Lister would have laughed at the dialogue if the sprite had been anyone else, would have memorized the sound bites so that he could repeat them to Rimmer in a breathy falsetto over and over before bursting into uncontrollable laughter- but it was him. His own eyes bore holes into his own as his lips formed words stolen from amateur porn films and stuffy romance novels. Lister was still considering this as his alternate pushed his hands into the flesh of his inner thighs and plunged his mouth over his cock, swallowing it whole.

He should stop this. He should escape. He shouldn't be enjoying this. He shouldn't be imagining Rimmer enjoying this. He should be feeling guilty, and furious. Instead, he felt alive as he came, thrashing against the mattress, alive and contented with the idea that he was wanted.

He lay back against the soft, comforting embrace of the down covers. The alternate Lister curled against him, spooning him the way he used to hold Kris. Rimmer. Rimmer wanted this. He wasn't sure how he felt about that. Once the sprite seemed to be contently sleeping, Lister clapped his hands, and gasped, sweating and sated on the floor of the AR suite.

Rimmer. He couldn't stop thinking of it. Rimmer had programmed all of those hideous, awful things- those things that he missed so much about having a lover. Why was he keeping it a secret? Did it scare him the way it scared Lister? Why did he choose him?

He was thankful that Rimmer had at least kept it a secret. This sort of thing- someone he knew so well… it was something that he would have to think on, in private, in secret, for a very, very long time. He would have to be certain before he asked Rimmer, very carefully, if it was some sort of elaborate, sick joke. He would have to be sure of his confused feelings before he could decide if he would ever mention it at all to the hologram.

Lister took a swig of water, and decided that he had enough photographs of Rimmer to figure it out.


End file.
